borborygmus 2010

It's the annual (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) borborygmus track list - songs from record albums released in 2010. This should give a pretty good overview of what I've enjoyed this year. The list length and style is derived from a CD I make each year for a select list of recipients (mostly people who ask). This year, selection, production and despatch were delayed, mostly due to 'flu. Apologies to all our subscribers.

1. Ready to Start
Arcade Fire from The Suburbs
2. Rambling Man
Laura Marling from I Speak Because I Can
3. New York Girls
Bellowhead from Hedonism
4. Slow
Rumer from Seasons of My Soul
5. More Than a Lover
The Coral from Butterfly House
6. Northern Skies
I Am Kloot from Sky at Night
7. Stay Lucky
The Gaslight Anthem from American Slang
8. The Wild Hunt
The Tallest Man on Earth from The Wild Hunt
9. Angel Dance
Robert Plant from Band of Joy
10. The End of the Movie
Stornaway from Beachcomber's Windowsill
11. Ain't Good Enough For You
Bruce Springsteen from The Promise
12. Wide Eyes
Local Natives from Gorilla Manor
13. I Don't Really Mind
Tame Impala from InnerSpeaker
14. You Won't Let Me Down Again
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan from Hawk
15. Heaven's On Fire
The Radio Dept. from Clinging to a Scheme
16. Drag the Lake Charlie
Drive-By Truckers from The Big To-Do
17. Green Eyed Boy
Rachelle Van Zanten from Where Your Garden Grows
18. Ghost of Woody Guthrie
Chatham County Line from Wildwood
19. The Blackest Lily
Corinne Bailey Rae from The Sea
20. What's In It For
Avi Buffalo from Avi Buffalo
21. Jet
Paul McCartney & Wings from Band on the Run

Arcade Fire are a class act, and I would love to see them live again; the problem is, they've got so big. Laura Marling's song was my track of the year in our family's annual Christmas Dinner run down. Bellowhead are a folk big band, touted as "with the exception of The Who, surely the best live band in the country" (The Independent). Folk music, but in its most eclectic, holistic, all-encompassing breadth. Folk with fiddles, concertinas, mandolins, pipes, whistles... and a four piece brass section. If there is one thing which defines Bellowhead as a live act, is that they are going to have a freakin' great time, and so will you.

Rumer - the Karen Carpenter of today. Despite the MOR nature of this record, the quality is outstanding. She writes the stuff, too. The Coral release was a late find - great retro psychedelic British pop. The I Am Kloot record was one of the Mercury Music Prize nominees this year (along with Laura Marling and Corinne Bailey Rae on this list).

There is no getting away from the Broooce influence on the Gaslight Anthem, and perhaps their 2008 debut was a better record, but I love the energy here. The Tallest Man on Earth is a chirpy Swede who delivers folk Americana-type music which is rarely slow nor quiet nor brooding. Robert Plant seems to do his best work with genius partners; in this case it's Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin helping him to deliver an atmospheric record.

Stornaway - Oxford band, folky and a bit quirky. Springsteen's The Promise collects 21 unreleased songs written (and mostly) recorded between 1976 and 1978, before the Darkness on the Edge of Town LP. And it's great stuff, considering it was all rejected the first time around! Local Natives are the first of several bands discovered at Glastonbury last summer; the record grew on me in the subsequent months.

Tame Impala - psych-pop that's so sonically past-tense, it could have been recorded when Edward Heath was Prime Minister. An inherently incongruous pairing, Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan provide grit and soul. The Radio Dept. contribute yet another example of the psychedelic meme which seems to pervade this year's list - the LP being one of the best examples of all the things that help make Swedish pop so magical.

The DBT's have appeared on this list four times. 'Nuff said. Rachelle Van Zanten is a endearing, funny Canadian young lady - who also plays blistering slide guitar. Also great live this year were Chatham County Line; contemporary, vital bluegrass. In concert, they deliver these delightful harmonies gathered around a single microphone.

The gorgeous, delightful Corinne Bailey Rae was superb at Glastonbury. Her LP is a fine collection of neo-soul, poignant but enigmatic following the death of her husband. Another Glastonbury find are Avi Buffalo; cute band, led by a very young Avigdor Zahner-Isenberg. A talent to watch. Finally, 1974's top-selling studio album in the UK was by Paul McCartney & Wings. Keeping with tradition, this track from the 2010 re-release of Band on the Run is my guilty pleasure.